In the Valley

-
Today, we ate our breakfast before our friend kindly offered 2 electric bikes for the day. However, we didn't accept as we enjoy walking the area and we would be restricted on some of the tricky routes.


First we walked up into some pretty village areas with the guidance of a local dog. Next we traversed the valley in search of a little waterfall.


We found one waterfall but the path to the other waterfall became quite steep and it looked a little tricky. We saw a few photos from people that had been but decided for us it wasn't worth it. It was fairly small and part of the route was walking through water which would be freezing.

We met a couple who also decided it was too tricky for them and their beautiful husky.


About turn and off through another village we went. We came across a wedding taking place and picked up a new ' dog guide'.

We cut through fields of crops, along irrigation tracks and water channels until we reached a road. There was no route on our map but we just followed the guidance of locals. It was all very pretty.

The dog guide was still with us and we were a long way from where we had met. We thought it could be a little dangerous for him to come any further as we were approaching civilisation again. Here there would be many territorial dogs waiting to cause trouble and injury. We managed to lose him in a field whilst he was distracted by something. We just wanted to keep him safe...


Next stop was our friend's weaving shop for a cup of Chai and a lesson in textiles and the art of weaving. We ended up chatting about all sorts of things before a customer appeared. We disappeared and headed off to watch the sunset.

Dinner as usual - veg thali with some new flavours and ingredients. Very enjoyable!

Bed was next on the agenda.

Popular posts from this blog

First Day Explorers

-
Image
After a good night's sleep, we woke early...ish for breakfast. We were hoping for a traditional Indian spicy fair but got a traditional boiled egg, bread and jam. We washed it down with a hot cup of Chai, so all was good. We ventured out in search of a few sites, however were easily distracted by fresh fruit platters, mango lassis and mobile phone cover shops. Next, an ATM stop to test various SBI machines. One small branch failed but the head office one worked. This was near the Mumbai stock exchange, complete with bull outside. We ended up at Horniman circular garden. An interesting name but the garden was being 'refurbished' - dug up. Marine drive is famous amongst the people of Mumbai. A huge boulevard next to the sea for romantic strolls. The stroll today wasn't filled with romance, more noise pollution as the whole sea defence boulevard was being fixed. Almost all of it for mile after mile. We had to walk on the dual carriageway but soon got fed up and headed inla
Read more

Le Havre to Nevers (7th-18th March)

-
Image
We have been cycling for 2 weeks now and have covered a lot of ground.  We have had varying weather of heavy rain, scattered showers and dry but cold.  Night's in the tent have been pretty cold! THE ROUTE (Le Havre) After our last night in a 'proper bed' for a while, we stocked up on food and headed out of Le Havre. We cycled through farmland to a pretty little town called Harfleur and then on to Lillebonne. We saw 2 massive birds nesting at the top of a post. Our first night camping was beside the river, very tranquil. (First night camping on the River Seine) We followed the Seine down to Rouen. This is funky town with lots of bars and restaurants all along the river. Unfortunately the heavens opened just as we approached so, after taking shelter for a while we continued on to find a camping spot for the night, this time near a railway line. From Rouen we headed throy St Aubin Les Ebeuf and Les Andleys following the river.  We saw lots of beautiful houses and chateau
Read more

Around Valence 22nd March to 9th April

-
Image
We are now staying with friends. One lives one side of the Rhone in the Ardeche and the other on the other side, in the Drome Region. We had originally planned to visit for a few days, however, due to the weather we have been here over 2 weeks! The day we arrived we had blue skies and sunshine, which lasted the first day! Since then we have had a lot of rain, thunder, lightning and hail. Our friends have very kindly said we can stay as long as we like. We have spent some time mending broken things eg. the bike repair kit bag, which virtually disintegrated and the sleeping mat, which we have now accepted cannot be fixed easily! We went to the Salon des Vin de France for a wine tasting event and tasted many wines from around France - some good, some not to our taste and not worth the high price. One sunny day we explored Valence. There are some very pretty parks and lots of historical buildings. We saw the Maison de Tete and a house where Napoleon used to live. We wandered the
Read more